Seventh Meeting of the Digital Agency Information Systems Acquisition Reform Study Panel

Last Updated:: Mar 10, 2023

Outline

Date and time: February 6, 2023 (Monday) 13:00 to 14:00
Place: Digital Agency Common medium meeting room
Agenda:
- 1. Opening
- 2. Proceedings
  - 1. Final Report
  - 2. Free Discussion
- 3) Closing

Data

Relevant policy

Ensuring Fairness and Transparency in Procurement / Procurement Reform to Utilize New Technologies

Summary of the proceedings

Date and time

Monday, February 6, 2023 from 13:00 to 14:00

Place

Medium Meeting Room, 20th floor, Digital Agency

Attending committee member

Member Kajikawa, Member Arikawa, Member Kawasawa, Member Kimura, Member Sakashita, Member Sumiya

Summary of the proceedings

The Secretariat explained the "Final Report of the Study Group on Reform of Information Systems Procurements in Digital Agency (Draft)" based on the simplified version of the materials, and the discussion moved on to free discussion by each member.
After that, Dr. Kajikawa, Chairman of the Advisory Panel, expressed his opinions on the Advisory Panel as a whole. Finally, Dr. Deputy Director-General Yamamoto commented on Digital Agency's future actions based on the discussions at the Advisory Panel.
The main opinions expressed by each member are as follows.

Final Report (Draft) of the Study Group on Digital Agency Information Systems Procurements

The number of short-term measures has increased to 45 items. Regarding these measures, rather than trying to implement all of them and delaying the overall progress, I think it is better to move forward even one. Based on the priority and difficulty, I would like you to proceed with what you can proceed with.
Major measures "② Improvement of capability of ordering party in system procurements" As for creating templates for contract forms and procurement specifications, what I see from private companies is that it goes well until a template is created, but when it comes to using it, I have the impression that there are many companies that do not know what parts should be changed for each project, or what kind of counterproposal should be submitted when a discussion occurs. Even in Digital Agency, I think there will be a shortage of human resources for this kind of support, so I would like to see efficient measures promoted to reduce the number of man-hours spent on mechanical work such as checking for typographical errors and omissions by making good use of digital power.
Regarding the main measures "⑤ Ensuring transparency through internal controls, etc.," there is a description that "each procurement support organization will conduct monitoring and active advice and support." It is sufficient if existing organizations can be utilized for monitoring, but it should be recognized that other ministries and agencies do not necessarily have human resources who can appropriately monitor the procurement of information systems. Based on this, it is necessary to propose a review of the system in order to expand it to all ministries and agencies in the future.
There is a description of "Unit of discussion at the review meeting" in the figure on page 3 of the summary version of the materials. This may be a requirement. Since the verification to be conducted from now on is to verify whether the measures for this requirement are sufficiently satisfied in both the short and medium term, it is desired that sufficient conditions be organized. For example, even if this report is intended to be used by local governments, etc., it is assumed that it will be difficult to reach a consensus among internal accounting personnel, etc. If sufficient conditions are clearly presented through verification by the central government offices, the situation will be greatly improved.
I recognize that this is exactly where we start. It is important how we implement it in the future. It is a waste to just consider and try it within Digital Agency in the next fiscal year and beyond. I would like you to work on it after fully considering how to promote it to advance the implementation. I would like you to openly communicate the progress of the verification.
With a view to spreading the measures to other ministries and agencies in the future, I would like you to consider promoting the measures by involving other ministries and agencies as well as outside parties from the verification stage in fiscal 2023. I believe that a structure and system in which we consider the measures together from the verification stage will make it easier for the government as a whole to carry out the measures.
Of the five pillars of the measures, four other than internal control will be new measures, so it is important to consider the method of evaluating the effects. It is important to consider what criteria should be used to judge measures that are not effective, how to conduct factor analysis, and how to carry out direction correction. In addition to the measures summarized here, I think there will be new issues that will arise, so I would like you to consider how to incorporate them. It is important to actively disclose (disclose information) the verification and analysis information in the Digital Agency in order to request other ministries and agencies to promote each measure in the future.
In regard to the main measure "(v) Ensuring transparency through internal controls, etc.," the main part of the report states "Enhancing internal controls, etc. that support transparency and ensuring effectiveness through collaboration with support departments." However, the simplified version of the material does not state ensuring effectiveness, so I would like to see it added to the simplified version as well, if possible.
In order to ensure transparency, it is important to disclose the selection process of business operators when business operators are involved in the promotion of the new measures (① to ④) set this time.
The Supply Support Team is supposed to play the role of the overall coordination function. However, it is necessary to clarify who will do what regarding the analysis and evaluation of ineffective measures and the incorporation of new issues. Regarding the fulfillment of the control and coordination function led by the Supply Support Team, to the extent possible, it is desirable to describe the beginning of the matter in the simplified version.
With regard to the main measures "③ Expansion of opportunities for SMEs and start-up companies to enter the market", I think that the survey for simplification of administrative procedures and the search, comparison, and selection of DMP services should cover not only central government ministries and agencies but also local governments and independent administrative institutions. With regard to the survey for simplification and the operation of catalog sites, I would like to see a wide range of targets considered in order to increase effectiveness.
One of the main measures "④ Elimination of vender lock-in" Investigation and analysis of tenders and response measures Regarding information systems, I would like Digital Agency to consider actively providing information to each ministry and agency, including companies that may have participated but did not and industry trends.
With regard to the road map, I agree with the broad trend of reviewing the direction of subsequent efforts after confirming the progress of effects and understanding issues in promotion at the end of FY 2023. In order to smoothly develop the road map throughout the entire Japanese government in and after FY 2024, from the stage of FY 2023, it would be good if the ministries and agencies that have large budgets for the procurement of information systems and the ministries and agencies that have been actively working on digitalization are involved and coordinated in the evaluation of measures including issues, even if not all the ministries and agencies are involved.
Various ministries and agencies are studying the establishment of procurement-related consultation desks and the improvement of efficiency by using systems. For example, in Consumer Affairs Agency, there is a system called PIO-NET, which organizes local governments' consumer-related consultations. While taking into account the verification in this measure, I think it would be good for Digital Agency to create a pattern for these consultation service systems, organize them, and disseminate them to the government-wide.

Comments from the Chairman

I will confirm the report that reflects the opinions of each committee member today and share it with relevant parties.
As for short-term measures, I would like you to implement them sequentially, starting with those that are easy to start. In the course of this, I would like you to conduct monitoring, evaluation, and analysis, which will lead to the next issues. Also, there are challenging parts in the highly novel measures DMP and vender lock-in measures, and there may be various problems, but I would like you to find out the issues one by one, and further increase the effects.
I would like to establish a place for evaluation next year or before that. In medium - to long-term measures, there is a possibility that discussions related to root causes, such as personnel systems, will emerge. In addition, regarding cross-ministerial issues such as sharing source codes, I would like to see a direction be established step by step in the new era of the inauguration of Digital Agency.

Greater Than